Review of Rain Man (1988) by Luke G — 03 Dec 2011

Words cannot describe the power behind Dustin Hoffman's performance in Rain Man, the nine time academy award nominated and four time academy award winning film. Academy award nominee Tom Cruise portrays Charlie Babbitt, a Los Angeles car salesman who is in the process of a huge deal which is being threatened by the EPA.

His trip with his girlfriend Susanna is interrupted when he finds out that his father died. He goes to his father's funeral and meets with his lawyer to find out he was cut out of the will. The estate his father owns of $3,000,000 was left to an unidentified party which he later finds out is his brother, Raymond.

Having never met Raymond before, Charlie is shocked to find out he has a brother. He decides to take him on a road trip for "Brotherly Bonding" when he is really blackmailing the doctor who holds the money for 1/2 of the settlement.

Even though Raymond has autism, Charlie sees that Raymond has a great memory and later sees he has a superior mind for numbers even though he has no concept of what money is. When they get to a motel, Susanna gets angry at how Charlie treats Raymond and leaves.

Raymond's strict schedule that he always follows at the institution becomes a problem for Charlie. Raymond's anxiety often gets the best of him on multiple occasions and he breaks down around Charlie in stressful situations.

One example is when Charlie is trying to get Raymond to go on a plane. Because of that situation, Charlie has to drive him to Los Angeles. Charlie, throughout the course of the trip, finds himself in worse and worse financial difficulties.

Finally, he recognizes Raymond's superior math skills and goes to Las Vegas to count cards. They make an exorbitant amount of money to cover his difficulties. The title "Rain Man" comes from Charlie when he was a young boy.

Whenever he found himself in trouble, he always heard the Rain Man sing to him and help him fall asleep. Dustin Hoffman's academy award winning performance will be remembered for all time as one of the best acting performances of all time.

Tom Cruise fantastically keeps up with him by showing the torment he feels that his father never told him about his brother, and the annoyance he feels at Raymond. The story of a brotherly love that grows over time and the impressively strong performances of a lifetime from Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman!